Health Trends Report 2021

1 Health Trends Report 2021. H E A LT H T R E N D S R E P O R T 2 0 2 1 | 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS. The EHR Hits Its Stride 3. Cancer Needs a Better Roadmap 5. The Mental Health Shadow of COVID-19 7. The Next Step Forward in Cardiac Care 8. The Year of the Pharmacist 9 THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC is a defining moment for Health care. Pharmacists, researchers, clinicians and every single person on the front lines of care have stepped up like never before. Our industry More Engines That Predict Disease 11 continues to face a once-in-a-lifetime challenge, and together we continue to respond with resilience and innovation.

2 Each year, our Health Trends Report examines the forces impacting Tailor Care to the Older Patient 13 care including the latest in Health technology and forecasts where our industry is headed. This year's Report is heavily influenced by the realities and ripple effects of COVID-19, such as the rise of virtual 15. Health care and the increasing rates of anxiety, depression and other Paying for the New mental Health issues stemming from social isolation. Medical Miracles While COVID-19 continues to dominate the Health care conversation, Virtual Care Goes Mainstream 17 our industry continues to innovate through crisis.

3 The smart use of Health data and technology, for example, has opened new ways to identify patients when they need care the most. Diabetes Care Is Community Care 19 Alongside the pandemic, our country is also experiencing an extraordinary awakening on racial inequality, a longstanding barrier to equitable Health outcomes. I find it personally heartening to see stakeholders across the Health care industry begin to question the status quo and identify new opportunities to make services more equitable. We should all be proud of the direction our industry is taking. Yet, there is still more to be done to drive fair access to Health care for all.

4 We are facing a challenging time, but also one of great hope and promise. As the pandemic eventually passes, its lessons will serve to make our Health system more agile and more responsive to the needs of consumers. That's at the heart of our purpose to be there for every meaningful moment of Health throughout an individual's lifetime. We are facing a challenging time, but also one of great Karen S. Lynch, President and hope and promise. Chief Executive Officer of CVS Health Karen S. Lynch, President and Chief Executive Officer of CVS Health H E A LT H T R E N D S R E P O R T 2 0 2 1 | 3. The EHR Hits making it easier for patients to get what they need.

5 Its Stride This shift will largely be mediated through EHR software. Epic, one of the nation's largest EHR companies, has been fine-tuning MyChart, a feature that allows patients to not only securely see and share their data with providers, but Digital Health records were supposed also navigate appointments and information about Health to make a clinician's job easier. Are they care ready to deliver on that promise? According to Sharon Vitti, President of MinuteClinic and Senior Vice President of CVS Health , MyChart is becoming T. an indispensable tool not only for clinicians but the he dream of an electronic Health record patients they serve.

6 Since the pandemic landed last spring, (EHR) born in the visionary 1960s imagined MinuteClinic used MyChart to bring some services online, one seamless, universal home for a patient's including virtual visits with providers, and it is one of the medical history. The actual rollout has been a principal ways for patients to see COVID-19 test results. bit rockier. Over the past decade, EHRs have contributed to exhaustion and burnout10 among Pre-pandemic studies suggest these kinds of patient portals Health care providers, increased costs for software and may even boost adherence and offer more ownership of the maintenance11 and presented interoperability treatment journey, though how that might relate to clinical outcomes isn't yet In 2021 and beyond, EHRs will continue to face these growing pains.

7 Innovations in both software and integration EHRs Learn to Cooperate. are already changing some of their more vexing features. Fragmentation of Health data across multiple, incompatible Here is what the next year may bring: systems has been a headache for consumers and providers since day one. A 2017 analysis of more than 500,000. Patient Portals Get Friendlier. providers identified at least 18 distinct EHR platforms in Starting on April 5, 2021, all patients will be able to freely use,16 and a 2018 study found that most hospitals don't use access their own medical records, a stipulation of the 21st patient data from outside their own Century Cures While patients have always been able to request their own medical records, the Cures Act will enable That may soon change.

8 In recent years, both Epic and new patient access provisions and better interoperability, Cerner, the two largest EHR companies, have launched H E A LT H T R E N D S R E P O R T 2 0 2 1 | 4. implementing workflow efficiencies and instituting a focused review system for every new alert. EHRs still have a long way to go before they deliver on their promise. But these and other good ideas such as add- ons that incorporate social determinants of Health help a clinician remember to work a patient's food insecurity into their diabetes plan19 may turn the tide. In the coming years, the EHR may at last become the intuitive, unobtrusive and Interoperability everyday tool that changes medicine for the better.

9 Has been a big area of our focus.. Sharon Vitti, President of MinuteClinic and Senior VP of CVS Health initiatives to facilitate the safe, digital sharing of data even among providers who use different systems. One promising technique is natural language processing, a subfield of artificial intelligence that focuses on communication and Interoperability has been a big area of our focus. It has to be, says Vitti. Retail medical clinics share information with hundreds of providers and medical institutions. We can't exist in a silo. Since 2014, her teams have shared 128 million records across 10,000 Health care locations in all 50 states, through Epic's Care Everywhere program.

10 And other areas of the company, such as the Coram Home Infusion arm of CVS Health , are launching Epic modules of their own. Unsounding the Alarms One major challenge is to shift the balance of work making EHRs productive while easing the attention they require from providers. Clinicians from across the industry Report spending more time in front of computers than in front of their patients, 10. , a source of frustration that leads not only to less productive , clinical interactions but, studies show, to exhaustion and burnout. 11. #. 12. Part of that, says Vitti, arises from alert fatigue. The 13.